quire of your majesty what crime
the prince my cousin may have committed, that his corpse should
deserve such indignant treatment?" "Nephew," replied the sultan,
"I must tell you, that my son (who is unworthy of that name)
loved his sister from his infancy, as she did him: I did not
check their growing fondness, because I did not foresee its
pernicious consequence. This tenderness increased as they grew in
years, and to such a height, that I dreaded the end of it. At
last, I applied such remedies as were in my power: I not only
gave my son a severe reprimand in private, laying before him the
horrible nature of the passion he entertained, and the eternal
disgrace he would bring upon my family, if he persisted; but I
also represented the same to my daughter, and shut her up so
close that she could have no conversation with her brother. But
that unfortunate creature had swallowed so much of the poison,
that all the obstacles which by my prudence I could lay in the
way served only to inflame her love.

"My son being persuaded of his sister's constancy, on presence of
building a tomb, caused this subterraneous habitation to be made,
in hopes of finding one day or other an opportunity to possess
himself of that objets which was the cause of his flame, and to
bring her hither. He took advantage of my absence, to enter by
force into the place of his sister's confinement; but this was a
circumstance which my honour would not suffer me to make public.
And after so damnable an action, he came and shut himself up with
her in this place, which he has supplied, as you see, with all
sorts of provisions, that he might enjoy detestable pleasures,
which ought to be a subject of horror to all the world; but God,
who would not suffer such an abomination, has justly punished
them both." At these words, he melted into tears, and I joined
mine with his.

After a while, casting his eyes upon me, "Dear nephew," cried he,
embracing me, "if I have lost that unworthy son, I shall happily
find in you what will better supply his place." The reflections
he made on the doleful end of the prince and princess his
daughter made us both weep afresh.

We ascended the stairs again, and departed at last from that
dismal place. We let down the trap door, and covered it with
earth, and such other materials as the tomb was built of, on
purpose to hide, as much as lay in our power, so terrible an
effect of the wrath of God.

We had not been long returned